European History Commons^™

A Love That Lasts: Jane Austen’S Argument For A Marriage Based On Love In Pride And Prejudice, Katlin A. Berry

Senior Honors Theses

During the period of Regency England, a woman’s life was planned for her before she was born, and her place in society was defined by her marital status. Before she was married, she was her father’s daughter with a slim possibility of inheriting property. After she was married, legally she did not exist; she was subsumed into her husband with absolutely no legal, political, or financial rights. She was someone’s wife; that is, if she was fortunate enough to marry because spinsters had very few opportunities to earn enough money to live on alone. Therefore, it was imperative that women …

Book Review: The Most Tenacious Of Minorities: The Jews Of Italy, David B. Levy

Touro University Libraries Publications and Research

The author reviews the book The Most Tenacious of Minorities: The Jews of Italy.

A Foray Into Library Digital Publishing: The British Virginia Project At Virginia Commonwealth University, Kevin Farley

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

The British Virginia project involves a collaboration between Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Libraries and faculty members in the departments of English and History at VCU, with the project led by Dr. Joshua Eckhardt (English). As of April 25, 2013, the project has published its first title: an online edition of a sermon preached to the Virginia Company by William Symonds. To ensure the success of this project, a number of details required careful planning, including library outreach, IT involvement, and digital publishing protocols. Our example has deepened a move toward a dynamic and creative digital environment for researchers across campus. …

Review Of The Young Leonardo: Art And Life In Fifteenth-Century Florence By Larry J. Feinberg, Brian Maxson

ETSU Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Putting Down Roots: A Tolkienian Conception Of Place, Kayla Snow

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the way in which J.R.R. Tolkien's develops and expresses his nuanced sense of place through his major literary works--namely, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien's sense of place, as expressed through his fiction, encompasses both metaphysical and geographical relational structures that are operative at both the local and global levels. As Tolkien develops his sense of place in his fiction, he draws from the Distributist principles--largely informed by Catholic social policy of the late nineteenth century and popularized by G.K. Chesterton--to build the economy in Middle-earth. The resulting economy resists industrialization …

The Unbought Grace Of Life: Chivalry In Western Literature, Richard N. Boggs

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

The code of chivalry has a rich literary history. From the violence and misogyny of pre-chivalric ancient Greece and Rome, the chivalric code was constructed in a deliberate effort to curb and improve the most violent aspects of male behavior. The chivalric male ideal was built upon the tripartite foundation of the ancient archaic virtues, the gallantry of Germanic barbarians, and the Christian beatitudes. Chivalry sought a male ideal which brought raw strength and power under the concept of legitimate authority. By casting the literary male ideal – the knight – into the role of the defender of the weak …

Deterritorialization, Pure War, And The Consequences Of Indian Captivity In Transnational Colonial Discourse, Billy J. Stratton

English and Literary Arts: Faculty Scholarship

The genre of the captivity narrative has operated as a vital circuit for transnational colonial discourse since its inception. Throughout the age of discovery, accounts of the captivity became an indispensible means of connecting the European metropole to foreign lands in Asia and Africa, as well as North and South America. The development of the Indian captivity narrative within the Atlantic context functioned as an effective tool for the dissemination of knowledge concerning the New World and its Indigenous inhabitants. In this essay, I examine some of the ways in which the captivity narrative functions as a colonial apparatus vital …

Colonialism And Mandates, John C. Hawley

English

Daily life in contemporary African countries must be understood as determined by their status as members of an interlocking network of postcolonies, striving to imagine themselves as related through Pan-Africanism but struggling first to realize themselves as fully functioning nations. Even though Ethiopia and Liberia are generally spoken of as the only countries in Africa that were not colonized, this actually suggests the level of subjugation the rest of the continent did experience. After all, if Italy failed in its attempt to take over Ethiopia in the 1880s, Mussolini succeeded in doing so in 1936; Liberia was, in fact, a …

Rex Quondam, Rexque Futurus: Arthurian Legends As Indicators Of British National Identity Throughout History, Audrey Ellen Wimbiscus

Senior Independent Study Theses

By looking at the texts of Arthurian legends such as Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, T.H. White's The Once & Future King, and Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, one can gain a historical perspective of the time in which each work was written. Through this historical perspective and by looking at each author's personal life, a picture of Great Britain's national identity at the time of writing can be seen. As such, the Arthurian Cycle can be used to exemplify British national identity throughout history.

For The Benefit Of Others: Harriet Martineau: Feminist, Abolitionist And Travel Writer, Laura J. Labovitz

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

One of the distinctive and remarkable traits of Harriet Martineau was her need to publish information that she believed would benefit society. Her publications - Illustrations of Political Economy (1832), Society in America (1837) and Retrospect of Western Travel (1838) - have the distinct characteristic of being published with the intent to inform and educate the British public. Scholars have focused on her later 1848 publication, Eastern Life: Present and Past, as her most important publication. Yet I will argue that it was her earlier works which set the stage for this later, better known book. Her travel to the …

The Thundering Throne: Personality, Poetics, And Gender In The Court Of King Henry Viii, Rebecca Marie Moore

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work examines gender in the court of King Henry VIII, focusing specifically on the role that the power and weight of Henry's personal decisions played in shaping the contemporary Social definitions of femininity, masculinity, and courtiership. The space of courtiership is particularly open to such inquiry because this space was so often one that revealed the fissures and failures in attempts to maintain the strict binaries that privileged hegemonic masculinity under Henry. These definitions, then, will be reflected in, as well as shaped by, court poetry and, as explored in the final chapter, prose. Literature produced within the context …

Piracy, Slavery, And Assimilation: Women In Early Modern Captivity Literature, David C. Moberly

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis examines a hitherto neglected body of works featuring female characters enslaved in Islamicate lands. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many Englishmen and women were taken captive by pirates and enslaved in what is now the Middle East and North Africa. Several writers of the time created narratives and dramas about the experiences of such captives. Recent scholarship has brought to light many of these works and pointed out their importance in establishing what was still a young, unsure, and developing English identity in this early period. Most of this scholarship, however, has dealt with narratives of the …

Creativity With Purest Energy: How Sir Thomas Wyatt Introduced Modern English Poetics, Jeffery R. Moser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The court poetry of Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) asserts a special confidence and boldness of the individual and his poetics that stand at the forefront of an ambitious, sure and powerful England which eventually came into place during his life and afterwards. Wyatt marks the start of a new literary period when humanity and art gradually diverged from religious rites and instruction, dramatic impulses for romantic love and mere desires for adventure, allegory and narrative to favor instead modern demands and conscious intellectualism. Wyatt's poetry best represents this distinct literary break from his native medieval predecessors and from writers who …

Women In Eighteenth Century London: Female Coming Of Age In Frances Burney’S Evelina, Cecilia, And The Witlings, Kate Hamilton

Honors Scholar Theses

The late eighteenth-century author Frances Burney is best known for popularizing the “comedy of manners,” a literary style later adopted by Jane Austen. Burney’s novels, journals, and plays offer an intriguing commentary on contemporary social customs and etiquette. In particular, she voices the concerns and desires of women, leading scholars to focus on the feminist overtones of her writing. Although she carefully examined female roles in the household and family structure, Burney also provided an insider’s perspective into London high life. As an acclaimed author and member of the royal court, Burney offers a rare insight into the lives of …

To Die A Noble Death: Blood Sacrifice And The Legacy Of The Easter Rising And The Battle Of The Somme In Northern Ireland History, Anne L. Reeder

History Honors Projects

In 1916, under the pressurized conditions of the Great War, two violent events transpired that altered the state of Anglo-Irish relations: the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme. These events were immediately transformed into examples of blood sacrifice for the two fundamentally opposed communities in Northern Ireland: Nationalists and Unionists. In 1969, Northern Ireland became embroiled in a civil war that lasted thirty years. The events of 1916 have been used to legitimize modern instances of violence. This paper argues, through the use of cultural texts, that such legitimization is the result of the creation of mythic histories.

Assur Is King Of Persia: Illustrations Of The Book Of Esther In Some Nineteenth-Century Sources, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

The marriage of archaeological referencing and picture Bibles in the nineteenth century resulted in an astonishing variety of guises worn by the court of Ahasuerus in Esther. Following the exhibition of Neo-Assyrian sculpture in the British Museum and the wide circulation of such images in various John Murray publications, British illustrators like Henry Anelay defaulted to Assyrian models for kings and rulers in the Old Testament, including the principal actors in Esther, even though authentic Achaemenid Persian art had been available for illustrative pastiche for decades. This curious adoptive choice echoed British national pride in its splendid British Museum collection …

Dryden’S Battle With Music In King Arthur: The Bracegirdle Hurdle, John Sievers

UNIversitas: Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

John Dryden came of age during a turbulent portion of England’s history. In his lifetime, he observed the collapse of four different governments. Born in 1631, Dryden lived through Charles I’s beheading, the republican experiment of the interregnum, the return to monarchy under Charles II, and finally the glorious revolution in which perhaps no blood was spilt but the condition of the English throne was undeniably weakened.1 These abrupt and tremendous political changes also included substantial cultural transformations. One of the transformations that had a limiting effect on Dryden’s literary career was the closing of the English theaters during the …

Prophets, Priests, And Kings: John Milton And The Reformation Of Rights And Liberties In England, John Witte Jr.

Faculty Articles

In this Article, I focus on the development of rights talk in the pre-Enlightenment Protestant tradition. More particularly, I show how early modem Calvinists-those Protestants inspired by the teachings of Genevan reformer John Calvin (1509-1564)-developed a theory of fundamental rights as part and product of a broader constitutional theory of resistance and military revolt against tyranny. With unlimited space, I would document how various Calvinist groups from 1550 to 1700 helped to define and defend each and every one of the rights that would later appear in the American Bill of Rights and how these Calvinists condoned armed revolution to …

Forging Literary History: Historical Fiction And Literary Forgery In Eighteenth-Century Britain, Anne H. Stevens

English Faculty Research

In this essay, I wish to explore a similar dialectic of historical positivism and skepticism in eighteenth-century Britain. Over the course of the century, but particularly in the second half, new and more scientific standards of historical investigation developed, with practitioners expressing a greater confidence about their ability to know the past. During these years, a series of monumental achievements in historiography appeared: David Hume’s History of England (1754–62), Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), and William Robertson’s History of Scotland (1759), to name just three of the most celebrated. As part of this increased interest …

"Night" And Critical Thinking, Paul Eisenstein

English Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Racial Impersonation On The Elizabethan Stage: The Case Of Shakespeare Playing Aaron, Imtiaz Habib

English Faculty Publications

The article focuses on the implications of playwright William Shakespeare performing racial roles himself, such as Aaron in "Titus Andronicus." Several plays are discussed, including "Titus Andronicus," "The Merchant of Venice," and "Othello." The SHAXICON database, which compiles the text of Shakespeare's plays, is the primary source of evidence to suggest Shakespeare acted in his plays. Information about race relations in Great Britain's society during Shakespeare's time is also given.

"The Play's The Thing": Considering The Morality Play In Morality Play, Heather Kennedy Mcdonald

UNIversitas: Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

The paucity of details about secular theater in the fourteenth century allows Barry Unsworth to imagine what a troupe of players would look like if we could examine them right at the time when "a totally new form of drama was being born" (Unsworth, "Barry Unsworth on Fourteenth Century Life and Theatre"). In his novel Morality Play, he imagines poor, itinerant players competing with the large guilds that put on an entire cycle of plays with the backing of unlimited funds. He conjectures that these players would be an amalgamation of different types of troupes that endeavored …

German Race Laws, Carol A. Leibiger

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

To Be A Woman: Shakespeare's Patriarchal Viewpoint, Conley Greer

The Corinthian

Shakespeare's characterization of women necessitates further study and discussion to fully appreciate his genius for interpreting human nature. Two plays in particular, Othello, The Moor of Venice and Measure for Measure, provide excellent female characters for scholarly analysis.

Figure, Image, And The Shape Of Time In Shakespeare's History Plays, Susan Walker

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Shakespeare began his career as a dramatist by writing the first of a series of plays remarking upon English history from the Middle Ages through the reign of Henry VIII. Most notable of this historic chronicle are the eight plays, or two tetralogies, that dramatize the tumultuous period of civil conflict between 1399 and 1485. Some critics of Shakespeare's tetralogies have argued Shakespeare's intent to produce a single, unified, and providentially-ordered chronicle in which the deposition of Richard II may be viewed as the nascent event for the civil wars that culminated in Tudor accession to the crown. Nevertheless, more …

Wordsworth, Beaumont, And The Publicity Over Captain John Wordsworth's Death At Sea, Richard Matlak

Texts relating to the Earl of Abergavenny (ship)

A scholarly account of the sinking of The Earl of Abergavenny which considers contemporary reports and sentiments of the tragedy.

Ezra And Dorothy Pound: Letters In Captivity, 1945-1946, Robert Spoo, Omar Pound

Books

These fascinating letters capture the most traumatic experience of Ezra Pound's life, when he was incarcerated at the end of World War II and indicted for treason. Omar Pound and Robert Spoo have collected and edited the unpublished correspondence between the poet and his wife, combining it with restricted military orders and extensive references to FBI documents, previously unknown photographs, and an insightful introduction, to create the definitive work on this period of Pound's life.

New Wine In Old Kings: British Wine Bottle Names And The Old Testament, Steven W. Holloway

Libraries

No abstract provided.

'Judith' And The Rhetoric Of Heroism In Anglo‐Saxon England, Christopher R. Fee

English Faculty Publications

The Old English Judith differs from the Liber Judith of the Vulgate at several crucial points, and in one particularly important way. In the Vulgate version of the story, Judith is a heroine in every sense of the word: she is a tropological symbol of Chastity at battle with Licentiousness, an allegorical symbol of the Church in its constant and eventually triumphant battle with Satan, and an inspirational figure who infuses her warriors with much needed courage and confidence; but the Vulgate Judith is also, in a very real sense, the agent by which God's will is executed and the …

Ua35/11 Student Honors Research Bulletin, Wku Honors Program

WKU Administration Documents

The WKU Student Honors Research Bulletin is dedicated to scholarly involvement and student research. These papers are representative of work done by students from throughout the university.

• Anderson, R. Scott. Anglo-Italian Relations During the Unification of Italy, 1859-1860
• Clark, Anne. Can Extra Fat Make Healthier Hogs? The Effects of Dietary alpha-Linolenic Acid on Antibody Production in Swine Following Stimulation by Red Blood Cells and by Pasteurella Multocida (Serotype A)
• Gottfried, Victoria. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A New Look at an Old Problem
• Halbert, Christy. The Stereotype of the Female Athlete
• Hannah, Kathleen. Innocence and Corruption in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet …